So this post is going to be a bit out of order because I got out of the habit of doing these, but I wanted to do this while I still had the memories fresh in my mind. Last night, at more or less the very last minute, after months of thinking I wasn’t going to get to go, I drove down to San Diego to attend the first Incubus concert of this (slightly ADD) tour at Harrah’s Rincon Casino.

This was the first time that I’d ever walked up to the will call counter and they had the band list already ready to go, so I found myself with my stickies and my tickets much earlier than I had expected to have them. Me and my friend went to the Pink’s at the Casino and got hot dogs for dinner and then went right past all the people in line to be let in to go back stage. I had been looking for my boss, but after searching around and asking Kil-and-Brandon’s tech Ted where he was, I couldn’t find him, so I just hung around out of the way until it became time to go get in my seats for the show. I was really pleased because the whole area was seated but I was second-row-center for the show, so I got a really good seat the entire show. I got a bunch of pictures and a few videos, especially of Pantomime and Magic Medicine. (DUDE they played MAGIC MEDICINE). Here is the Pantomime video:

More videos and photos will be forthcoming. What is perhaps important here is the after the show portion.

There wasn’t really an afterparty, possibly entirely because the venue was totally ghetto and didn’t have a green room or anything (the guys kept hiding in the busses or in freaking shipping crates). But, possibly also because there wasn’t an afterparty, the guys were all milling around in the open. My friend really wanted to talk to Ben, so when there was a break in the conversation with him we went up and talked. He must have recognized me because he called me ‘LC’.

Ben, in case any of you are somehow unaware of this, is a singularly awesome man. We talked for quite a while, mostly about all the new music he has coming up in side projects, but he told us that information was ‘top secret’, so I suppose I can’t be sharing it here. We also shared memories of the solo show he’d done in Vegas last year and the three of us had a really good laugh at our recollection of how he’d handled a heckler shouting at him from the crowd in Vegas. The conversation moved on then to the nature of being a creative, and he shared with us a paraphrase of a quote he’d heard on the radio that he said was really driving his sense of inspiration lately, which was this: “Being an artist isn’t about expressing oneself in any way, it is about exploring oneself. I thought that was a pretty cool quote. After a while of talking he apologized and said he had to go put something away in the bus and wash his hands because they smelled like “an oyster bar”, and asked if we were going to be around in a few minutes. I was pretty sure this meant he was ditching us, but since he’d been nice enough to talk to us for like half an hour, we were chill.

It so happened that as Ben left, it ended up giving us the perfect shot to talk to Mike, so we sidled right on up and spoke to him for a while. We also talked to him about music he’s doing on upcoming side projects that were pretty hush-hush (but that I am super excited about), and also talked about how awful LA traffic is, how awesome it was that he got to go to Coachella in a helicopter, and how the Time Lapse Consortium will be working later this year on putting out a studio album. (!!!) He decided he needed to hug me twice before he went off to get on the bus.

And just like it’d happened with Ben, as Mike was leaving it opened a perfect opportunity for us to talk to Brandon, so my friend overcame my crippling anxiety regarding bothering Brandon in any way and flagged him down to talk. I haven’t seen any of the guys in almost a year, so when Brandon was done introducing himself to my friend and turned to me, I could see on his face that he was confused, like he knew who I was but couldn’t remember why. So he stuck out his hand for me to shake and I said, “Hi, I’m Lauren, I work for you, I run your website.” And Brandon’s face gets this expression of epiphany and he goes, “Oh! Lauren! Yes. I remember you, how could I forget? How are you doing?” And for a second he was ignoring my friend entirely in order to ask me how my day had been like I was the only person in the world.

Of course, I was thinking, “I just had a rocking Incubus show and now I’m talking to you, how do you THINK my day has been?” but I just said that I was doing really good.

Brandon immediately seemed to want to talk about the production of the venue; we talked about how small it was and how it didn’t have a whole lot of amenities, and we agreed the place was really ghetto, but he smiled and said that sometimes it was nice to play shows without all the fanfare, because it was “like playing naked. First we start like this and then a little by little we put the fancy outfit on.” My friend asked if there was going to be a lot of production on this tour and Brandon shook his head, explaining that they were playing a lot of radio shows, which always had their own thing going on.

At that point I broke in excitedly to say, “Oh man, I’m actually super pumped for those radio shows, you’re playing with Cake.”

Brandon immediately looked at me with this expression of stunned, excited shock. “Cake? We’re playing with Cake?”

“Yeah, you’re playing with them in DC and Philly in a couple of weeks.”

“I’ve always wanted to see them perform!” Says Brandon, excitedly.

Me, a bit shyly, “Well, now you will!”

Brandon, still excited. “Oh man! Cake! Cake!! I love cake. Cake is delicious.”

To which I said, like an idiot, “Cake is delicious.”

He had to go after that, and he shook my friend’s hand good-bye. I thought he was going to shake my hand too but he went “Oh, no, you don’t, you come here.” and demanded that I allow him to give me an enormous bear hug. Who was I to tell Brandon Boyd no? So I totally got a hug.

We were about to leave at that point when Ben showed back up to pick up our conversation again. We discussed a few other things, like the Vegas shows, whether or not he was playing another solo set there, and so forth, and as it looks like people are starting to go, he asks if Emu and I are going to hang for a little bit longer or if we were driving back to the OC right then. I tell him I’m very sorry, I would love to, but I have to be up at 7am the next morning so I should be driving home soon.

Ben, with the most epic wince ever, “What? Oh man, I’m sorry. Why?”

Me, shrugging, “I have to get up and announce that the rest of the Honda Civic Tour is on sale in time for the East Coast. So, you know, I’m doing it for you.”

Ben, wincing more, “Really? Oh man. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay, I do it for love.”

Ben, eyebrows up, “I don’t think I even love myself that much.”

He said goodbye then and that he’d see me in a couple of weeks and to drive safely. I told him to have a good tour and I’d see him in DC.

As my friend and I walked back to the car, we realized we could hear the Morning View frogs singing in the hills.

It was just about perfect.

So I might have been overwhelmed by work for a bit and allowed myself to lapse here. I am very sorry to all you brave souls who might still be clinging to the driftwood here. I will make activity happen here again soon, I promise, although the end of April and all of May promise to be very busy. (I finally get to see the guys again! FINALLY.)

In the mean time, here is Brandon’s Spotify playlist for your perusal. If you like it, tell him! …if you hate it, maybe it’s better to keep it to yourself, though.

http://open.spotify.com/user/incubushq/playlist/7vaasl1M8rmZiXuCqu7G1b

(Also as much as I hate commercialism, do remember that HQ Box Set shindig is in preorder mode right now. Go to www.incubushq.com if you’re interested and you literally cannot miss the chance to order it. It’s expensive, though, be warned, and international shipping is murderously high.)

It turns out that even when you are doing something you love, some work is always work, no matter how much you love it. Despite all appearances and despite how utterly fun it was, HQ Live was definitely a labor of love and nothing short of it, when it comes to ‘labor’. Twelve hours shifts are grueling at any pace.

Originally HQLive was supposed to run every day between June 31st and July 6th, but it turns out I wasn’t the only one working hard there. Shortly after the location opened we realized that it wasn’t going to work out that way. If nothing else, Brandon Boyd goes out of his way to make sure he doesn’t wreck his voice; one of the many things he does to avoid blowing his voice out is make sure that he doesn’t have to sing concerts more than three nights in a row without a night to rest in-between. Incubus had been in pretty intense rehearsals before HQLive happened, so even before July 31st happened, they were tired.

Seven straight days of having to perform shows in such an intimate setting, where there was no space to cover up if they screwed up, was just too much. It was too much for the band and it was too much for the crew. So we decided to take July 4th off, it being a holiday and all, to give ourselves a day of breather before diving back in for the last day of shows.

Of course, people still wanted to come even on the 4th and hang with the band, even when we made it clear that we were taking the 4th off, so there was always a tense sort of joke running through the crew that we might go up to the site on the 4th anyway. Even on the night of the third, there was a half-hearted idea that we might have to go in the next day.

Night 4 (July 3rd) was the first night that they performed Rogues. While I was backstage working during the show, the idea that my favorite band was just on the other side of the curtain performing my favorite song was incredible. I thought I was going to break the table that my station was made out of from the sheer force of rocking out. It was a very special moment.

HQLive happened before my household had two cars, so after the show was over I would have to wait for my husband to drive to the site and pick me up. After the concert on the 3rd, I packed up my computer and notebook and so forth and went out into the now-empty performance area to sit on one of the couches and wait, since sitting in a cheap plastic folding chair isn’t good for someone with chronic back and shoulder pain. Ben was still out there near his bass, talking to a friend, so I sat there and half-listened to them as I waited.

I don’t remember if I inserted myself into the conversation or if I was brought into it, but I ended up standing up and going over to talk to them for a little bit. I more or less only wanted to tell Ben that I didn’t know whose idea it was to play Rogues, but that I was very grateful for it and that I was very happy that they’d played it. Ben told me that he wasn’t sure who’d put it on the setlist either but that he was glad I’d gotten my favorite song.

It was about this point that one of the other guys on the crew came up and asked—jokingly—if I was ready to be back on-site at 9am again on the 4th.

The noise I made in protest probably wasn’t very human. It certainly wasn’t a word. I was just so tired, and even the prospect of working with Incubus an extra day didn’t seem quite worth the cost of working so hard. It was a sentiment I never thought I’d have felt, where sleep and rest and home-cooked food sounded like a better idea than Incubus.

I guess my facial expression reflected that too, because Ben turned to look at my expression and got a look of his own that was something between amusement and commiseration. He reached out and gave me the most enormous bear hug ever, literally picked me up off of my feet and took a step or two like he was going to carry me off somewhere, while reassuring me, “Don’t worry, Lauren, we have tomorrow off!”

It wasn’t too long after he put me down that my husband came to pick me up.

I like to think I learned a lot of things at HQ. I learned that no matter how well a series of audio cables are taped down, I can still trip over them and look like I’m about to crash straight into the soundboard, requiring three (or more) roadies to catch me in mid-fall (they’re deceptively quick, Incubus’ roadies). I learned that one can make poor man’s pyrokinetics with cremora. I learned that my boss is very fond of coffee that tastes like it came out of a donkey’s ass. I learned that me, Sean Bates, and somebody’s amp can all fit through one doorway at the same time if one of us sucks in our gut and the other one prays a lot. I learned that being the only crew member with the Power of Tits (TM) can be an advantage.

But of all of the many things I learned at HQ I think the most important thing I learned was that the men who make up the band we know as Incubus (and love) have a communal age of about twelve.

As we progressed on our merry adventure it became the unavoidable reality that people—specifically fans, specifically that kind of fan—figured out where we were. Once they figured out where we were, people more or less stayed camped out at the front door from the first moment someone arrived til the last person locked the door behind them.

There was a nice little cafe across the street from the HQ location called Cafe Midi. It was pricey but it was pretty good. One of the last days we were working, Ren, Chris and Brandon went across the street before rehearsal started to try and have a nice lunch together. Unfortunately for them, despite the fact that Brandon was trying very hard to be incognito, it was hot, he couldn’t cover up his Very Obvious tattoos and, of course, he was still Brandon Boyd, so the fans found him pretty quickly.

And it stands to be noted, some fans don’t have much of a sense of boundaries.

So while poor Brandon and Chris and Ren were trying to have lunch, a line formed for signatures and one-on-one chatting time and Lord knows what else. And for a while I guess the three of them tried to weather the storm but eventually it got to be too much, and they asked for their meals to go so that they could go backstage at the HQ space and eat in peace.

Meanwhile, I had walked to Ralph’s on my lunch break and bought myself some cheap grocery store sushi.

So I was sitting at my station, which was mentioned before was kind of inconveniently in the middle of the walkway (great planning there) with my little package of sushi, open, and in comes the esteemable Mr. Boyd, carrying a container with the rest of his salad in it. Which he was eating, because, you know. It was his salad.

But apparently he’d never seen grocery store sushi before in his life, because the minute he saw it sitting next to me he came over like he’d been attracted by a magnet. And being a very tall man in general started looming over me and my lunch, while eating his, asking, “How’s that sushi? Is it good sushi? How is it?”

The problem was twofold here.

The first problem was that his mouth was full of salad, and apparently if his mother ever taught him that lesson about not speaking with his mouth full, he was ignoring it.

In fact, the second problem was that he was actively ignoring it. Not only was his mouth full and he was speaking to me, which was gross enough, he was also completely exaggerating his mouth-motions as he spoke, as if to make his mouth open as wide as it could while he talked. Like a bad imitation of an old kung-fu movie. Even his words were distorted, turning into something akin to the sounds Dory the Fish makes in Finding Nemo when attempting to speak ‘whale’.

I don’t know if any of you have been paying attention, but Brandon Boyd has a very generously sized mouth, and a lot of elasticity in the skin around it, so he can make his mouth open very wide.

I swear to God I saw his backmost molars. The ones, you know. Covered in spinach or arugela or whatever.

What was I supposed to say? I was caught in abstract horror. This couldn’t be happening. It could not be happening. Brandon BOYD of all people could not be standing there two perilous centimeters from getting his half-chewed lunch all over my lunch. He must have asked me questions about the sushi for like two full minutes and I don’t remember a damn thing I said about it because I was too busy looking with horror at his mouth waiting for something to fall out and ruin my lunch.

After a while, and blessfully without dripping any lettuce goo on my food, he got bored and wandered away, and I sat there with my food, at my computer, feeling like I’d just gotten through some kind of strange ritualistic hazing.